The subject matter disclosed herein relates generally to conductive cooling of a single board computer and, more particularly, to apparatus and methods for securing a single board computer and providing a heat path for use in conductive cooling.
As electrical assemblies, such as computers, become more densely populated with heat-generating components, such as processors, transistors, and/or diodes, component overheating becomes more likely. This increased likelihood of overheating contributes to reducing the lifespan of such assemblies and/or becomes a limiting factor in reliability and size of such assemblies.
Rack-mounted circuit boards, such as those that may be used in known electrical assemblies, may generally be classified as either a conduction cooled circuit board or a convection cooled circuit board. Many known conduction cooled circuit boards include a metal heat management layer that is positioned on one surface of the circuit board and in contact with components mounted, such as soldered, on the circuit board. The heat management layer extends to the edges of the circuit board and provides conduction surfaces that are arranged to contact heat sinks. The heat management layer is mounted to the heat sinks to facilitate thermal conduction of excess heat generated by the components to the heat sinks.
Such conduction cooled circuit boards therefore offer only a single thermal path for use in dissipating heat generated by components mounted on the circuit board. For example, FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a known conduction cooled single board computer 100. Computer 100 includes a printed circuit board (PCB) 102 that is positioned with respect to a side bar 104 and a cooling plate 106. A wedge lock 108 secures computer 100 in an environment, such as a system or a rack that provides card edges, by inducing a force downwards onto cooling plate 106. This downward force is likewise imparted by cooling plate 106 onto PCB 102. As such, wedge lock 108 secures computer 100 against shock and vibration that may be encountered in the operating environment. Heat generated by PCB 102 is conducted by cooling plate 106 to side bar 104 and wedge lock 108. The heat is then dissipated such that approximately one third of the heat follows a thermal path through wedge lock 108, and approximately two thirds of the heat follows a thermal path through side bar 104. As such, the heat management layer of computer 100 has a lower thermal resistance to. However, as shown in FIG. 1, the length of the main thermal path limits the amount of heat that may be dissipated from computer 100. Accordingly, an apparatus and method is desirable for increasing the amount of heat that may be dissipated by a computer using conduction cooling.